Ultimate Collection, The (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Easy Listening  »  General/Easy Listening
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: December 1, 2008
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: EMI Gold
• UPC: 5099926718224
• WAPI (Tower ID): 112997027
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #13326 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #65 in Easy Listening (See Top 100 Easy Listening Bestsellers)
• #64 in General/Easy Listening (See Top 100 General/Easy Listening Bestsellers)

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Although the Seekers have a five-CD box set released in Australia, it's hard to argue with the title of this two-disc European compilation, which focuses on the group's mid-'60s heyday. In the U.S., they were a two-hit wonder, those hits being "I'll Never Find Another You" and "Georgy Girl." In the U.K., they had six Top Ten hits, plus a couple that got to number eleven. Of course, all of those are included on a set containing 50 tracks that runs 131-and-a-half minutes. The rest of the material provides strong evidence of both the Seekers' talents and their limitations. There is a bright dividing line in '60s pop music between the musicians who, in the wake of the Beatles, learned to write their own songs and those who didn't. Although they fell under the wing of Tom Springfield, (who wrote "I'll Never Find Another You" and co-wrote "Georgy Girl") early on, the Seekers did have a songwriter in their midst, Bruce Woodley, who collaborated occasionally with Paul Simon, notably on his most successful composition (unfortunately, not a Seekers hit, although they cover it here), "Red Rubber Ball." His association with Simon also brought the group an otherwise unheralded Simon song (and one of those number elevens), "Someday One Day." But he was not prolific enough to turn the Seekers into a group that primarily generated its own material. Springfield brought them most of their hits, with Judith Durham singing lead in her warm, Judy Collins-like voice, and then they filled up their albums with cover songs, on which other members sometimes took the lead. Those covers fill up this album, too, to the extent that a large part of the collection could be called, "The Seekers Sing the Folk-Pop Hits of the '60s." They present their versions of songs written by and/or associated with Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, the Mamas & the Papas, and so on, all of them done effectively, but none any better than their originators. In this sense, an "ultimate" Seekers collection may be a bit more than even a loyal fan needs. And despite the length of the set, the sequencing and mastering are questionable. A decision has been made to push the hits up to the front, but thereafter the tracks are all mixed up, and since their sound quality is quite variable -- some clear and powerful (and recently remastered), some sounding the worse for wear, some in stereo, some in mono -- the listening experience is inconsistent. Still, one gets a good sense of the Seekers' music at the peak of their success on this collection. ~ William Ruhlmann

The Seekers' The Ultimate Collection not only lives up to its name, but is unique among the array of single-disc compilations devoted to the Australian quartet, in that it was programmed by the four members themselves, from what they consider their most important recordings. Additionally, it's the only compilation of the group's work to draw on their entire recorded history, from their 1963-vintage Australian recordings (which have never been widely available outside of their native country) right up to their 2003 recording of the Bee Gees' "Massachusetts." Done as a memorial tribute to Maurice Gibb, it's the only version of the song that this reviewer has heard to rival the Bee Gees' own. Also present are the group's best-known songs from their English folk-pop period, including "Come the Day," "I'll Never Find Another You," "A World of Our Own," "Someday, One Day," and "Georgy Girl," though the real value to the collection will be the many tracks that show the quartet as a straight folk group with no pop pretensions. Indeed, much of this disc may startle listeners who only know their later charting work -- when the Seekers do "Dese Bones Are Gonna Rise Again" (from 1963 in Melbourne), or even "The Wreck of the Old '97" and "We're Movin' On" (where Judith Durham belts out that gospel tune with operatic intensity), the latter two tracks cut in London for the EMI subsidiary World Record Club, they sound a lot more like the Weavers than like any British Invasion outfit. It's all good, and very different from the Seekers sound anthologized anywhere else. For all of its range, however, there's also a surprising degree of cohesion on this CD -- between the Melbourne-era sides and their Tom Springfield-produced London sides, such as "Allentown Jail," and the 1997-vintage "The Shores of Avalon" or "The Bush Girl," there is a unity of sound that is startling to ponder, across 34 years. All of their voices have held up well, and in the instrumental breaks on those modern sides, they even give a nod to the polish of their folk-pop period. In all, between the range of material, the exceptional sound quality, and the thorough annotation, this is a great place to finish a Seekers collection, but also just as good a place to start. ~ Bruce Eder

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